MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ATS Medical, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATSI - News) -- today announced that ATS Medical shareholders approved the Company’s acquisition of privately-held 3F Therapeutics at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders held today in Minneapolis.
“We are pleased that our shareholders have supported this transaction and our strategy to become a leading provider of the broadest and most advanced heart valve therapy in the world,” said Michael Dale, Chairman, President and CEO of ATS Medical. “By acquiring 3F Therapeutics and its leading-edge tissue valve heart technology, we are dramatically increasing our addressable market and our future growth potential. We believe this is a significant milestone in our long-term strategy to diversify our revenue base and to exceed $100 million in annual revenue.”
Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, ATS Medical is acquiring 3F Therapeutics by issuing nine million shares of ATS common stock to 3F shareholders, with up to 10 million shares of additional ATS stock to be issued upon the achievement of certain regulatory milestones.
As a result of the favorable shareholder vote the transaction is anticipated to close by September 30, 2006.
About ATS Medical
ATS Medical, Inc. manufactures and markets products and services focused on cardiac surgery. The company, global in scope, has been headquartered in Minneapolis since its founding in 1991. More than 130,000 ATS Open Pivot® Heart Valves, which utilize a unique pivot design resulting in exceptional performance and low risk profile, have been implanted in patients worldwide. ATS Medical’s focus on serving the cardiac surgery community is further strengthened by offerings that include ATS Simulus(TM) annuloplasty products for heart valve repair, SurgiFrost® and FrostByte(TM) products for surgical cryoablation of cardiac arrhythmias, RTI-Cardiovascular for allograft tissue services, QAS home monitoring services for anticoagulation therapy and the development of PARSUS blood filtration technology. The ATS Medical web site is http://www.atsmedical.com .
About 3F Therapeutics
3F Therapeutics was founded in 1998 with a focus similar to that of ATS Medical, on serving the needs of the cardiac surgeon. 3F Therapeutics’ fundamentally unique heart valve product design concepts are intended to improve on the performance of existing heart valves by mimicking natural valves. With the belief that there is not a single solution for each heart valve implant, 3F Therapeutics has worked toward offering cardiac surgeons several biological tissue heart valve options from which to choose. Its first product, the 3F Aortic Bioprosthesis(TM), has been commercially released in Europe and the U.S. FDA submission process is underway.
Source: ATS Medical, Inc.
